One damaging issue is dragging down the whole KMT, and even its safest districts are showing cracks — bad news for the party heading into Taiwan's local elections.

• A single controversy has become a party-wide liability rather than a local problem.
• Traditional deep-blue strongholds, long treated as automatic wins, look shakier than expected.
• Taipei mayor Chiang Wan-an repeated the same non-answer when pressed, which made the awkwardness worse.
• The pattern points to a party struggling to settle on one clear line before voters go to the polls.

Outlook: If the KMT cannot put the issue behind it, its safe-seat advantage keeps eroding into the year-end local elections.